Framing Faith and Pleasure: Black Muslim Women Religious Health Influencers on Social Media

This study investigates how Black Muslim women religious health influencers in Ghana and the United States utilize Instagram and TikTok to disseminate vital sexual/reproductive health information within culturally and religiously constrained environments. Employing a digital ethnographic approach, the research analyzes the ways these influencers navigate online visibility strategies, negotiate religious authority, and communal credibility while reshaping and decolonizing sexual health pedagogy. Findings reveal that these Black female religious health influencers establish religious authority by integrating health expertise and knowledge of Islamic sexual health. Consequently, challenging androcentric narratives on Muslim women’s sexuality and persistent racialization of Black bodies and Black Muslim thought. They gain visibility by selectively utilizing culturally appropriate communication, religious commodification, and platform affordances to foster acceptability and trust within their faith communities. The study contributes to scholarship religious authority in the context of health.